COLLEGE FOOTBALL

COLLEGE FOOTBALL; At UConn, New Stadium, New Doubts

By BILL FINLEY

Published: August 30, 2003

EAST HARTFORD, Conn.—
While a stadium was being constructed, a football conference was being destroyed. As workmen hurried to put together the final pieces of Rentschler Field, a project that was supposed to create not just a shiny new place for the University of Connecticut to play football but a foundation for the Huskies to compete at the highest levels of the sport, some university presidents were tearing apart Connecticut's future conference, the Big East.

UConn has its showcase of a stadium here, 19 miles west of the campus in Storrs, and it will be unveiled for football on Aug. 30, when the Huskies open their season against Indiana. UConn's vision is another matter. Only four years removed from playing at the Division I-AA level, Connecticut is intent on quickly developing a major football program. That plan included building a new stadium and joining the Big East, a major football conference thanks, in part, to the presence of top programs at Miami and Virginia Tech.

There was no reason to doubt that Connecticut football was on the right track when ground was broken for Rentschler Field just three years ago and when the state decided to devote $91.2 million to build it. Expectations were that it would be filled with Huskies fans cheering their team against opponents from the Big East, which Connecticut will join as a football playing member in 2004.

But the Big East was rocked earlier this year when Miami and Virginia Tech announced their intention to join the Atlantic Coast Conference after this season. No football team stood to be hurt more by the defections than the Huskies, who may have a new stadium but are no longer assured of playing in a healthy conference with a Bowl Championship Series bid.

''This stadium is a major part of our Division I-A effort, and we built the stadium while relying on promises made to us by Miami and reassurances that have proved false,'' said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is spearheading a lawsuit filed against Miami and the A.C.C., alleging that Miami reneged on promises that it intended to remain in the Big East for the foreseeable future. ''That's the reason I remain so angry and so adamant. All the information that we continue to uncover reaffirms that Miami and the A.C.C. knew of our reliance on false assurances even as we were building the stadium and trying to build a better team.''

Blumenthal does not regret the state's spending the money to build the 40,000-seat stadium. Few do in this sports-mad state, which has fallen hard for UConn men's and women's basketball.

''Certainly, these events were unexpected,'' he said. ''But the decision to build this stadium still makes sense and is a sound one. The Big East will survive and we will hold Miami and the A.C.C. accountable for the damage they have done. There are very energetic efforts under way to make Connecticut football something special, to fill the stadium and to attract fans.''

So far, it seems to be working. Connecticut has sold more than 24,000 season tickets, more than doubling last year's total of 11,300. And some 31,000 tickets have already been sold for the opener.

''This building can be a great place where people can come on a Saturday afternoon and enjoy the event that is college football,'' Coach Randy Edsall said. ''You play to your environment sometimes. When someone sees how immaculate this place is, it can only make them play harder. It can be a great rallying point and a great gathering spot.''

The fans seem to be accepting Connecticut's view that nothing that has happened will affect the program in the long run.

''Everyone is excited here,'' said Joe McGuinness, a season-ticket holder. ''It's a beautiful football stadium, the first major stadium we've had in this state since the heyday of the Yale Bowl. I would have been a lot more upset had Syracuse and Boston College pulled out of the conference. To me, Miami isn't that important. They're from the South. They didn't belong in our conference in the first place.''

It is easy to see where such positive attitudes come from. UConn started with very little and built two of the most successful basketball programs in the country, with both the men's and women's teams winning national championships in the last four years. Comparatively, taking a team that played at the Division I-AA level just four years ago and turning it into a winning football program does not seem so daunting.

''We are certainly not going to put any artificial expectations on this program, but, at the same time, neither are we going to put any limitations on it,'' said Jeff Hathaway, the UConn athletic director.

Connecticut's faithful grew even giddier when the Huskies had an unexpectedly solid season last year, going 6-6 and winning their final four games. The highlight was a 37-20 season-ending road victory over Iowa State, which later played in the Humanitarian Bowl. Two weeks earlier, the Huskies defeated Kent State, 63-21, in the final game in Memorial Stadium, a 50-year-old relic of an era when the traditional opponents were Maine, New Hampshire and Yale.

Memorial Stadium did not fit the university's vision. Rentschler does. As part of a project to help revitalize Hartford and surrounding areas, the state agreed to pay for the new stadium.

A rather utilitarian facility, Rentschler Field is not at all an exercise in excess despite its hefty price. Strict rules on the pregame ritual of tailgating seem intent on stripping much of the fun. Ball-playing and Frisbee-tossing will not be allowed, nor will charcoal fires or large gas grills. If that does not drive fans away, a schedule that includes Lehigh, Akron, Western Michigan and Rutgers may.

But no one said this would be easy or happen in an instant. Connecticut got what it wanted, a stadium worthy of a major college football program, and that has helped stoke this can-do spirit. A wounded Big East will not stand in its way.

Photos: Quarterback Dan Orlovsky is one of Connecticut's 15 starters returning from last season's team. They will play in a new 40,000-seat stadium, Rentschler Field. (Photo by John Dunn for The New York Times)(pg. D1); Coach Randy Edsall at practice this week preparing his team for its opener today. (Photo by Associated Press)(pg. D2)